Advice to help plan for early retirement

At the moment:

  • Earnings - 179k (me) + 25k (wife)
  • Pension 1.1M (me) - wife pension is neglible
  • My taxable income is 129k (bad for tax bands) with 50k in pension yearly
  • 50k S&S ISA + 60k cash ISA (wife likes to have cash) + small emergency fund
  • House paid off
  • Aged 48 (kids 15 & 13, so will be approaching uni finish at retirement age)
  • Target is 55
  • Don't have masses to save per month - can't max ISA just now without changing something (we spend 8-10k a year on holidays on average)

My reading is:

  • Pension is good and I don't need to keep adding so heavily - in fact, 1.1M in 7 years may reach 2M (my target) on its own
  • Bridge between retiring & pension is the problem - need more ISAs (200k?)

I can't bring myself to stop pension contributions yet to divert to ISA due to the tax savings - been contributing hard to pension forever.

Am I being stupid here - should I cut pension to say 25k a year so that I can fill an ISA every year?
Thoughts and advice would be welcome.

Posted Aug 3, 2026, 10:46 AM UTC

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